A Demon's Strength
by gingerwhovianrobotskeleton
Summary: Six years have passed since that first summer, and Bill Cipher has not forgotten how his takeover was ruined by the Mystery Twins. When Dipper and Mabel come back for their last summer, he exacts revenge and re-takeover of the world. But Bill's caught off-guard when Mabel makes a deal to save her family. Will this twist help with his plan, or does Mabel have something else in mind?
1. Prologue: The Aftermath

**A/N: I know I have about 3 or 4 fanfics that need to be updated, but I've been itching to do a Gravity Falls fic for a few weeks! With any luck, I'll be doing a better job of keeping this thing updated (Not making any promises though).**

 **Anyways, as stated in the summary, this will be a MaBill fic, and is set after the events of "Weirdmageddon II". I gave this story a T rating mostly for mild language and some adult themes/humor (No lemons, obviously).**

 **DISCLAIMER: Gravity Falls is property of Alex Hirsch and Disney. I own nothing except the laptop I am typing this story on. All OCs are mine unless stated otherwise.**

…..

 **Prologue: The Aftermath**

"Dipper! We did it!" Mabel cheered as she tackled her brother to the ground.

Dipper ignored the pain Mabel's hugs were causing to his already sore limbs and hugged her back. Waddles ran up to them and licked Dipper's cheek. The boy was too elated to push either of them off.

A few feet away, Ford was sitting up from the ground, his arms feeling limp from having them frozen in an upward position for the last few days. "What happened?" he asked dazed. "Where's Bill?"

"We defeated him!" Stan proclaimed as he bent down to help his brother up. "He had you frozen as a golden statue. Blasting that triangle out of existence must've turned you back to normal!"

Ford looked all around him. The skies were blue once again, and the riff was no longer in sight. He looked all around to see the citizens of Gravity Falls either just waking up or reuniting with their loved ones. He saw Soos in the distance, hugging his grandmother. Wendy was hugging her younger brothers while Manly Dan had them all in a tight bear hug. The town looked mostly torn up and littered with rubble. It would take a lot of work to fix everything up, but for now, everyone was at peace.

Ford looked up at his own brother. His normally perfect suit looked tattered and his signature fez was missing. He had a few scratches and a black eye, but he didn't seem that much in pain (unless he was hiding it). He then looked over at the twins and Waddles. Both of them looked like they've been to Hell and back. Their clothes were covered in dirt and were sporting bumps and bruises of their own. Next to Dipper was a big gun similar to the one he had already built to take down Bill, but failed to do.

"Stan? Where did that gun come from?"

The other brother looked perplexed. "You don't recognize it? We found the blueprint for it hidden in your work room. It had your handwriting and everything."

Ford could only shake his head. Surely he would remember something like that. Unless he purposefully erased it from his mind so Bill wouldn't know about it, which was the most likely reason.

"Anyway, Dipper and I spent the last few days building it, and Mabel and the rest concocted a plan to take back the town, distract Bill and used the gun on him and his demon friends."

Ford looked at the twins, proud of their accomplishment. For the first time in so long, he was seeing his family stick together in a big way. Seeing how happy Dipper and Mabel were reminded him when he and Stan were their age. His heart ached knowing how many years he spent apart from his own brother. The feeling in his arms and legs were starting to return, so he gently pushed away from his brother and stood up on his own.

"Stanley," he began, rubbing the back of his neck, "I'm sorry for getting angry at you about rebuilding the portal."

"You don't have to be sorry," Stan defended. "I should be the one apologizing. If I hadn't built that portal, none of this would've happened."

"I think we are both responsible for that," Ford looked behind him to see the twins reuniting with Candy, Grenda and Pacifica. "My trying to separate the kids apart started this whole mess. I thought Mabel was holding Dipper back from achieving his dreams." He turned to face his brother again. "Just as I thought you were holding me back."

Stan looked away for a moment, the memories of being thrown out of his family fresh in his mind. "I'm sorry for ruining your chances of getting into West Coast Tech. I had been wanting to tell you that for a long time. I just didn't want to be separated from you."

Ford could only nod a thanks, not knowing what else to say. There was so much Ford wanted to apologize for, but he didn't know where to start. Quickly an idea struck him. "I guess I broke our deal," he said.

Stan looked back at him confused. "Come again?"

"Remember when I came back, we made a deal that you would close the shack and move away after the summer was over?"

Stan let out an aggravated breath. "You bring this up _now_?! Geesh! The least you could do is wait until the kids are back home before you try to kick me out!"

"Will you let me finish, you big idiot!" Ford argued back, but quickly composed himself before he continued. "You said you would _if_ I didn't put the kids in danger! And unless you were dozing off through the entire Weirdmageddon, it's clear that I broke our deal."

Stan's eyebrows slowly rose up as the realization came upon him. "You mean…"

Ford nodded. "You're allowed to stay and keep the Mystery Shack open. It might take me a minute to find a new job anyways, and the bills have to be paid. But I still want my name back."

The other man could help but smile. "Brother, I would be happy to stay. Hey, you don't even have to retool the resume. We can run the shack together!"

His twin looked at him surprised. "You want me to run the shack with you?"

"Of course I do! Because just like those two," he pointed in Dipper and Mabel's direction, "You and I are the perfect team."

Ford smiled back at him, happy to have his brother back. The two then walked over to where the twins were.

Dipper was the first to notice his great-uncles. When he saw that Ford was back, he ran up to him and gave him a big hug. "Grunkle Ford! I thought I was never going to see you again!"

"I didn't think I was going to make it either," Ford admitted as he knelt down to the boy with teary eyes. "I am very proud of you Dipper."

The young boy smiled at him. "Thanks, Grunkle Ford, but it wasn't just me." He turned back to where Mabel was standing a little ways off. She had a tiny frown on her face and she seemed to be avoiding Ford's gaze. "Come on, Mabel," his brother coaxed gently.

Mabel took nervous steps towards them until she was standing next to her brother.

Ford gently placed his hand on her shoulder. "Mabel, I'm sorry I made Dipper not tell you about the rift. None of this would've happened if I just kept to myself and let you two stay together. You taught me a very valuable lesson about family. And for that, I am proud of you as well."

Mabel looked up at him, a tiny smile spreading on her face as well. Without a word, the young girl wrapped her arms around Ford's neck in a tight hug. The older man hugged her back, pulling Dipper in as well. Stan knelt down on the other side, hugging his niece, nephew and brother. For the first time in years, Stan felt like a Pines again. Like he was part of the family once more. Everything was perfect.

…..

"NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO- Ooompf!"

The triangle landed front first onto a grey floorboard. The pain of the battle he just fought hit him quickly afterwards. He hadn't felt this much aches since he inhabited Dipper's body. The fact he was feeling any pain at all was a bad sign for him.

On weak arms, he pushed himself up to find he was no longer in the real world. He found himself in the TV room that mirrored the one in the Mystery Shack. The only difference was that everything was void of color.

Whatever invention those kids had ahold of, it had managed to send him back into the dreamscape. Anger rose within him. How had those twins outsmarted him a third time!? He was an all-powerful dream demon! He was thousands of years old! How could he have been defeated by two twelve year olds!? There was no way they could've made that weapon unless they had one of the journals, which he had burned all of-

The demon's thoughts screeched to a halt. Sixer must have started another journal and kept it hidden from him. He even has the memory extracting tool that could've easily hidden it when he tried to read Sixer's mind.

"That clever bastard," the demon sneered.

With a snap of his fingers, the TV in the living room turned on. Bill sat down to watch the people of Gravity Falls celebrating their victory. Question Mark was with his grandmother, all of the Reds were reunited, and even Lil' Gideon managed to find his family. He watched in disgust as the boy gave his mother and father apologetic hugs. It wasn't even that long ago the boy was working for him, making sure that Pine Tree was kept far away from Shooting Star as much as possible. As one would guess, the fake psychic couldn't even manage to do that.

With another snap of his fingers, the screen changed from the Gleeful family to the Pines family. Anger filled him again as he saw the four twins hugging and re-bonding with each other. How dare they take away everything he had worked so long for? How dare they get their happy ending while he's left to rot away in the boring grey dreamscape? That world was in his grasp, and they took it away from him!

" _Hey everyone!"_ The Mayor's voice was heard in the television set, _"Let's hear it for the Pines family!"_

The crowd cheered as the clan took notice of it all. Both uncles hoisted the Mystery Twins onto their shoulders and paraded down the streets of town. Bill's rage went from simmer to boiling when the townspeople began to chant, _"Pines! Pines! Pines!"_

The town might as well have been mocking him with those chants. Not able to take it anymore, the demon rose from his seat, turning red and black in the process, and shot a blue fireball at the television set.

To Bill's horror, nothing happened.

Instead of blowing up into a fit of sparks and smoke, the fireball merely hit the screen and slowly poofed away like a cloud of cigarette smoke. He shot another fireball, but the same thing happened. Frustrated, he kept shooting fireball after fireball at the TV set. He shot at every object he saw until he heard one explosion. When it didn't come, the demon collapsed to his knees, letting out an anguished cry.

His powers were gone. Whatever was in that gun had weakened his magic severely. The TV room was blanketed in a blue, misty fog from his attempts at destroying something. He didn't know whether his powers were gone for good, or just dulled until the effects of the gun wore off. From the way his magic was working, it could take years before he was back to full strength. Bill didn't have time for that. He needed to seek his revenge on that dreaded Pines family as soon as possible.

" _Mabel? Are you okay?"_

At the sound of Pine Tree's voice, Bill looked up at the TV. The cheering townspeople were gone, and the town square was replaced with the attic of the Mystery Shack. The twins were on their respective sides of the room, each packing their suitcases. Pine Tree had most if not all of his belongings tidied up while Shooting Star's side was a slightly disorganized pile of knitted sweaters and teen magazines. She was sitting on her bed, gloomily looking at her Mabel puppet.

" _Do you think he's really gone?"_ the young girl asked.

" _Bill? Or course he is,"_ the boy joined his sister on the other side of the room. _"You saw that gun blasting him away. The other times we defeated him, it never ended like that."_

" _I know, but…"_ Shooting Star trailed off, closing her and turning her face away from her brother. _"I can't help but feel like he's still watching us. Like he's plotting another revenge scheme on us. What if he follows us back to Piedmont and tries to hurt Mom and Dad?"_

Pine Tree gave an uncertain look as well. Bill could tell the thought hadn't occurred to him. If the demon wasn't weak, that's exactly what he would be doing. Although even if he was all-powerful, he wouldn't be able to enter the real world unless he could possess a body. He couldn't even leave Gravity Falls when he was in the real world. That was the one thing that bugged him, and he still didn't know the answer to that particular riddle.

The young boy's features sobered up and he turned his sister to look at him. _"I am never going to let that happen. I firmly believe that Bill is gone for good. But if it's true that he's still out there, I will never let him lay a hand on you. I made that mistake last time, and I won't ever make it again. Whenever you're in trouble, I will always be there to save you."_

" _You promise?"_ the girl sniffled.

He opened his arms for a hug. _"I promise."_

She smiled and hugged him back.

Aggravated, Bill stalked away from the television set. Those kids were the bane of his existence. No matter what they did, they somehow managed to get a step ahead of him. And they knew it too! Their arrogance had them believing the demon was dead and gone for good.

"This is…" the demon trailed off as something clicked in his brain. "…perfect."

If his triangle form had a mouth, it would be grinning across its form. The kids thought he was gone. If Bill were to attack them, they wouldn't be expecting it! But with his condition, it would take him forever to recuperate; which was enough time to come up with the perfect revenge scheme.

"I've waited thousands of years to take over the world; a few more measly years will go by quick," he assured himself as he walked back into the TV room and watched as the twins had finished packing their bags and started playing with their homemade mini-golf course. He watched as Shooting Star got a hole-in-one and started jumping around the room in victory.

"Pine Tree won't be able to protect you forever," he told the tiny image in a sinister tone. "Once I have my powers back, the both of you will be finished!"

When he snapped his fingers again, the television set turned off and the image of the Mystery Twins disappeared.

…..

 **A/N: Wow! That prologue came out longer than I expected it to. Not a bad thing of course. Hopefully this was a good enough set up for things to come. I also really wanted to write a make-up scene between the Stan twins. Maybe we'll get one in the finale? (Fingers crossed)**

 **Anywho, thanks for reading and leave a review if you like!**


	2. Chapter 1: Six Years Later

**A/N: My laptop has been doing this weird thing where the keys won't work when I press them every now and then (Mostly the area around 'N' and 'M'). Maybe I've been putting too much pressure on the keyboard? Or there's a sinister force that doesn't want me to write anymore stories….**

 **WARNING: This chapter contains some slight horror elements.**

…

 **Chapter 1: Six Years Later**

" _Merge right onto Exit 219, entering Gravity Falls, Oregon,"_ the GPS voice said.

Once they had passed the familiar billboard, Dipper shut off the system. He knew the way there without the GPS' help. The boy let out a sigh of relief. "I thought this trip would never end!"

"We would've gotten here sooner if you let _me_ drive," Mabel chimed in as she shoved her magazine back into her purse.

The male twin shook his head. "Mabel, you drove up here last year, and as I recall, you ran over a deer."

"An _already_ dead deer," she clarified and added, "and it was only half of a deer left."

"You still freaked out and almost ran off the side of the road."

"The car bumped!"

"That's what happens when you drive over things!"

Mabel groaned, dropping the argument immediately. She looked out the window as they drove through the town square. There was a lot of damage done to the town when Bill took it over all those years ago, and the citizens spent a lot of time fixing all that had been ruined. Gravity Falls still looked like your run-of-the-mill small hick town, but at least the buildings looked a bit nicer. To the twins, this was home.

"This is all weird, don't you think?" the female twin mused.

When they stopped at a stop sign, Dipper looked at her confused. "What do you mean?"

"You know, how we only used to come here during the summers, and now we're moving here to live permanently," she clarified.

"It is," he agreed, feeling the excitement in his stomach. He felt just as nervous as Mabel was feeling – especially since he has to do his own laundry now – but he was more excited to be out of the house and to have the freedom to study the supernatural and conspiracy theories as much as he wanted without his parents getting on his case about it.

"It's hard to believe that everything is changing so fast!" Mabel exclaimed, bringing Dipper out of his thoughts. "It seems like only yesterday when we were starting high school, and I thought _that_ was gonna be crazy. But this is _insane_ compared to that! We're adults now! We'll be living on our own and everything!"

"Mabel, you and I have faced crazier stuff than this," the male twin assured her. "You and I will do just fine in the adult world. We're gonna have a great summer together, and afterwards, you and the girls are gonna go to Portland State and have the time of your lives!"

That calmed down Mabel a little bit. It was true she was happy about going to college with Candy and Grenda, but it never stopped her from overthinking and getting nervous about everything – especially since Dipper was forgoing college to study as Grunkle Ford's apprentice. She gave her brother a small smile and went back to looking out the window.

It wasn't long before the twins finally made it to the woodland trail that led to the Mystery Shack. Both of them smiled as they drove through the uneven road, memories of their preteen years coming back to them and all the adventures they had there. It was hard for them to remember the summers before they started coming here.

The twins never told their parents about the dangerous stuff that went on in Gravity Falls, nor that they almost brought upon the end of the world. For one, they wouldn't believe them since the Weirdmageddon never went past the borders of the town. And even if they did believe them, there would be no way they'd ever let their children spend one more summer – let alone six – with their Grunkle Stan.

The reappearance of Grunkle Ford complicated things a bit. It was hard enough trying to come up with a logical reason for their 'dead' uncle Stanley to show up after thirty years. Since their grandpa Shermie had never told them about their other uncle (Mostly because he was only a baby when Stan was disowned), they were reluctant to let Dipper and Mabel go back there again. It took a lot of convincing from both Stan and Ford to let them visit for another summer. Once they saw how (mostly) behaved Stan was and how he treated the twins, they obliged.

They pulled up to the side of the shack right by the golf cart. There weren't that many vehicles there with the exception of Stan's Cadillac and Soos' pick-up. At that, Mabel rushed to get her seatbelt off. "Soos and Melody are here!"

The girl jumped out of the car before her brother could say anything. She ran right up the porch and to the screen door. However, instead of easily swinging open, Mabel crashed into it and fell back onto the ground. "Ow!"

Dipper held back a laugh as he started unloading the car.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Stan quickly apologized from the other side of the door. "Forgot to unlock it!"

Once he flipped the metal hook, the door swung open, but not by their great-uncle. A massive pink blur ran right past his feet and straight to the young brunette lying on the ground.

"Waddles!" Mabel exclaimed, hugging her pet pig.

"I swear that pig only ever runs that fast when you come up here," said their uncle as he walked towards them. "Any other day he's lying around or trying to chew up my clothes."

Mabel eased the pig off of her as she got up and gave Stan a hug. "Oh, Grunkle Stan! It's been forever since we've seen you!"

"What are you talking about, kid? Ford and I were at your kid's graduation two weeks ago."

"She's probably relieved we didn't die on the way back up," Ford said bitterly as he joined his family, "what with your bad driving and all."

"Hey, my driving is perfectly adequate for my age!" Stan argued as Mabel let him go.

"We almost went to jail for speeding, and you ran over a raccoon."

"You're still alive, aren't ya."

"Hey, dudes," Soos came out an intervened. "I thought you both agreed to hold off on the fighting when the twins came back."

"He started it," Stan accused, pointing at his brother.

Mabel shook her head at the three grown men. Neither of them had changed much in the last few years, except that the Stan-twins had a few more wrinkles than normal on their faces, and Soos had started shaving off his sort-of moustache more often. Eventually, the two brothers begrudgingly shook hands and apologized for arguing. Soos wanted them to hug it out, but they both said no.

"Would you guys mind helping us with our luggage?" Dipper asked once he was done unloading the car.

"Sure thing, dude," Soos smiled. He walked over and gave his friend a fist bump before grabbing two suitcases and bringing them into the house.

Mabel ran up behind him with her pink duffel bag. "Where's Melody and the new baby?"

"Sorry, hambone," the older man frowned. "The doctor says Felix has to stay home. He's only a week and a half old and is still building up his immunity to diseases and such. No other human contact except for the parents and my Abuelita."

"Oh, okay," Mabel nodded sadly. She was looking forward to seeing the new baby. "Do you at least have some photos of him?"

"Of course, dude," the handyman confirmed.

The two made it up the attic with the other three men following behind them. By the time the car was unloaded and all of their stuff was in their bedroom, everyone was starting to feel hungry. Normally they would've gone out to Greasy's Diner, but the twins were still exhausted from the nine hour drive it took to get here. Stan decided to order some pizza and the gang made an evening of sitting in front of the television set and watching the video the Grunkles took of their graduation.

" _And here we are driving across the Golden Gate Bridge!"_ Stan's voice was heard as the TV showed the arches of the bridge zooming by. Suddenly, a horn honked nearby and the camera turned to a blue car that zoomed by them. " _And this jerk just cut us off!"_ He angrily yelled, then turned the camera to his brother. _"Ford! Let's show this guy what for!"_

Ford, who was driving the vehicle, refused to look at the camera. _"We are not going to get into some kind of crazy street fight,"_ his brother said. _"We are gonna be late enough as it is!"_

" _Hey, we would be there faster if you let me drive!"_

" _It was either me driving, or getting banned from the state of California."_

" _Which would bring my count to thirty-three!"_ Stan proudly proclaimed.

Ford shot a quick look at his brother. _"Shouldn't you wait to use that camera at the graduation? You'll waist all of the film!"_

" _This is the first time you and I have been on a road trip together,"_ he reminded. _"I want to capture every moment of it! I also packed a bunch of extra cassette tapes. Soos said he could edit them all together like some kind of film and put it on a disc or something like that."_

On cue, a tiny graphic popped up in the corner of Soos giving a thumbs up and a caption next to it reading "Soos Approved".

The twins laughed at their uncles' antics, making their own road trips here look tamer by comparison. Luckily, Soos didn't spend as much time keeping in the road trip clips as Stan did filming them, so it wasn't long before they got to the actual graduation.

Mabel had a smile on her face when her brother came on the screen, walking across the stage to accept his diploma. She remembered how nervous he was that day, thinking he was going to trip on stage and fall into the orchestra pit. As his sister assured, everything went off without a hitch. The boy smiled and waved at Stan's camera as he walked off the stage.

When Mabel got on stage and accepted her diploma, she bent her head towards the audience, and her cap lit up with rainbow lights that spelled out "Mabel: Class of 2018". A few people (and Stan) could be heard cheering in the background.

"How did you manage to do that Mabel?" Soos asked excited. "I can't even see the wires!"

"Just a few LED lights and a hole punch," the brunette explained. "The tiny wires were duct taped to the inside."

After Mabel had left the stage, the rest of the ceremony was pretty uneventful. The valedictorian gave her speech and all the graduates had thrown their hats up in the air. After that, it cut away to the twins' parents trying to get pictures of them together, their uncles, and a few of their friends. Then it cut away to the graduation party.

As Mabel watched the video, her eyes were starting to droop shut. She did have a long day, and didn't get much sleep on the drive up. She looked over at Dipper who seemed to be half awake himself. Not wanting to disturb him or anyone else, she scooched closer to her brother and laid her head on his shoulder. Her eyes shut as she started to get some rest.

…

The next day, Mabel went on a mystery walk with Dipper and Ford. The three were trying to hunt down one of the creatures their Grunkle had recorded in his new set of journals. He had only seen it in passing and managed to draw a quick sketch of it before it scampered off. The photo looked like a cross between a rabbit and a horned lizard.

"Were there any other features you noticed about this creature, great uncle Ford?" Dipper asked as he looked at the journal. "Noises it made? How it smelled? Something that could help us track it?"

"Not much," the older man admitted. "The only time I ever saw it, though, was when it would bounce around the trees."

"Well, looks like we'll have to go into the woods to find it then," Dipper concluded.

Mabel gave a cheer. "It's a good thing I wore my woodsy sweater!" For emphasis, she twirled around to show off her green camouflage sweater with plain brown skirt and hiking boots. She also wore a headband that had fake leaves sewn into it.

"I… guess so," Dipper replied. He always thought Mabel put too much emphasis on her wardrobe. But then again, maybe the camo get up would help conceal her from the creature they were tracking and not frighten it too much.

Once the three had their hiking and tracking gear all set up, they headed out. They invited Stan to join them, but he declined saying that someone had to run the shack. He wasn't much for discovering the supernatural anyway.

Once the trio were in the forest, they began their tracking. They noticed a few clawed footprints in the ground and started following them. "These prints look similar to lizard feet," Dipper noted. "And the sketch you drew had scaly paws."

"True, but I don't think they are the same shape," said Ford. "These look more like chicken prints."

As Mabel listened to their musings, a light caught shone in the corner of her eye. She tried to block it, thinking it was the sun, but then she noticed the light flapping back and forth. She looked to see a butterfly balancing on a big leaf. It had golden wings that seemed to reflect the sunlight. They sparkled like gold dust.

The girl was amazed by this. She had never seen a butterfly this beautiful. "Hey guys," she called back to her team. "Come look at this!"

She looked at her comrades, but neither of them seemed to be paying attention to her. They were still pointing and analyzing the footprints.

 _Figures_ , the girl thought bitterly. She turned back to the butterfly, but it started flying away from her. "Hey!" She called out.

She chased the butterfly as it flew further into the forest. Mabel pulled the butterfly net out of her sack and started trying to catch it. Every time she tried to swipe at it, it just seemed to fly faster out of her reach. She tried hiding every time it stopped at another plant and then jumping out to surprise it, but it still didn't work. It's like the insect knew her every move.

Eventually, Mabel got frustrated with the thing and let it fly away. She sat by a tree, catching her breath and getting a drink of water from her canteen. As she rehydrated, she noticed the forest looked slightly darker than before. She looked towards the barely seeable sky and noticed the sun was starting to set.

"Oh no," she groaned. "Dipper and grunkle Ford are probably looking for me."

She got up and started walking in the direction she just came. It was pretty hard to see without the sun, but it was still too light to pull out her flashlight.

"Dipper! Grunkle Ford! Where are you?!" she called out.

She got no reply. She called out their name a few more times, and there still wasn't no answer. Where were they? She fished through her bag and pulled out her cell phone, cursing herself for not doing this in the first place. She dialed her brother's number and pressed the phone to her ear. The phone rang a few times before she heard a clicking and scratching sound on the end. There was no hello from her brother. Just the sound of his breathing.

"Dipper? Are you okay?" she asked, slightly concerned.

" _I'm sorry,"_ said a voice that obviously didn't belong to her twin. _"Pine Tree can't come to the phone right now."_

Mabel froze, a chill running down her spine. There was only one person she knew that ever called Dipper that.

" _He's too busy… decomposing."_

"W-What did you do to him!" she said angrily, trying to keep her voice steady.

" _What I should've done years ago!"_ Bill exclaimed through the phone. _"If I had known I was going to be defeated by a couple of twelve year olds, I would've done away with you a lot sooner!"_

Mabel had a hard time getting her thoughts straight. Did Bill say he just killed Dipper? He couldn't have! They destroyed him with Ford's gun years ago! There should be no reason for him to be alive! And no reason for Dipper to be dead.

" _What's the matter, Shooting Star? I thought you'd be happy with this!"_ the demon taunted. _"With your brother gone, there's no more shadow for you to be forced behind. Not to mention Sixer won't be picking him over you anymore… Mostly because I killed him, too."_

"YOU'RE LYING!" she screamed through the phone. She threw it at the tree and it shattered into pieces. She started running as fast as she could through the forest. She had to find her brother and uncle. They weren't dead. The triangle had to be holding them hostage just to bait her. She would find them, and they would defeat Bill together.

She quickly found herself out of the forest and in front of the Mystery Shack. She felt a quick sense of relief. Surely grunkle Ford still had the demon slaying gun hidden away in his office. She ran into the shack.

"Grunkle Stan!" she called out. "I need you to find the demon slaying gun! Bill is-"

She stopped, noticing that Stan wasn't in the shop. It was completely empty, it gave the girl the creeps. Mabel looked towards the entrance to the hall of fake taxidermy creatures and saw a streak of blood in the middle of the doorway. The girl cringed, her heart beating fast. She began walking towards the entrance. Once she was fully inside, the streak had turned into a trail, which she reluctantly followed. It took her past the unicorn-on the cob and the Thighclops until she was at the back of the store. She looked up at the main display and screamed.

Stan's head was sitting in a glass display case, his face set in a permanent expression of fear and wet blood soaking the bottom of the display case. Next to him was a sign that read "The Cheapskate".

Horrified, Mabel started backing away slowly until she bumped into something behind. She jumped and turned to see she bumped into a pedestal. On top of it was a bloodied hand screwed onto a metal stand to keep it upright.

The hand had six fingers.

Mabel let out another scream and ran as fast as she could out of the display room. She had to get out of that shop. She threw open the front door, but something else bumped right into her, causing her to fall to the floor with another scream.

In front of her was Dipper, hanging from the porch roof by a rope tied around his neck. Mabel looked at him in horror, tears running down her face and limbs shaking in fear. Bill had been telling the truth. Her family was dead. She had no one left.

Suddenly, another flash of light hit her eye. She blinked back her tears and noticed that the shiny butterfly she was chasing earlier was sitting on Dipper's shoulder.

Before Mabel could process what was happening, the butterfly flew right past her and into the center of the room. It floated in midair, its wings growing brighter than it had before. It glowed until it was nothing but pure light. Then the light began to morph into a larger shape. Almost instantly the light popped out like dynamite, causing Mabel to cover her eyes, fearing she'd go blind. Once the room was back to its normal lighting, she looked back up to see there was no longer a butterfly.

Floating in its place was Bill.

The girl was frozen in shock and fear. She could barely utter a word. Bill was the butterfly the whole time. It led her away so he could kill her brother and uncles.

" _Long time no see, Shooting Star_ ," the triangular demon greeted in a too-friendly manner. _"Last I saw you, you were a wee bit short."_ He pushed his fingers together to emphasize his point.

"I-I grew up," the girl stammered out. She mentally berated herself for choosing such stupid last words.

" _That much is obvious,"_ he taunted, _"but I think today's the day your growth spurt ends."_

At that, the door behind Mabel slammed shut, and two long branches jutted out of the walls on each side of her. They entwined themselves around Mabel's arms and pulled her up to a standing position. The feeling in her limbs were returning as she tried to struggle against the grip of the foliage, but the restraints were just too tight.

" _It's just as you thought, Shooting Star,"_ Bill said menacingly. _"There is no one left to protect you."_

The demon held up his hands and a gun materialized out of thin air. She quickly saw that it was the same gun Ford had built to kill Bill before.

" _This gun could do nothing but stun me,"_ he proclaimed, aiming the gun right at her. _"Imagine what it can do to mortals!"_

"No! Please don't!" Mabel screamed desperately, pulling on her restraints again.

" _Time for this star to turn into a black hole!"_ the demon laughed at his own joke.

Without a second thought, Bill pulled the trigger. The last thing Mabel saw was bright red light…..

…

"Mabel!"

Her eyes snapped open. She was breathing heavily and could feel cold sweat all over her body.

Dipper was sitting right in front of her, worry written all over his face. Ford was kneeling next to her brother on his left, and Stan and Soos were standing behind both of them, all with the same concerned expressions.

Mabel looked at her surroundings. There was no sign of Bill or blood anywhere. There was only some boxes of pizza on the end table and the sound of Stan and Ford's road trip on the television.

"D-Dipper?" her voice was shaky and weak with fatigue.

"It's okay, Mabel," her brother assured her. "It was only a nightmare. You're safe."

The girl wasted no time in hugging her brother as tight as she could. She didn't care about her own well-being at the moment, as long as her brother was still alive.

"Mabel, what was the dream-" Ford began to ask, but Stan placed a soft yet firm hand on his shoulder.

"Let her be," he said gently.

Dipper comforted her sister as she cried into his chest and silently meowed to herself, which started to calm her down as usual. _It was only a dream,_ she kept herself thinking. _It was only a dream._

(GSV MRTSGNZIV SZH LMOB QFHG YVTFM!)

….

 **In the book** _ **Dipper and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun**_ **, one of Bill's hidden codes explains that Mabel meows herself to sleep after having a nightmare. I thought it was interesting and heart breaking, so I added it to the story.**

 **So, what are those jumbled up numbers, you ask? Well, I've been getting into codes lately, and I thought it'd be fun to leave you guys codes to solve at the end of every chapter. Just like Hirsch does in the credits of the show. The codes will either be a favorite quote from the previous chapter, something goofy, and I'll try to sneak in a few hints about what's to come in future chapters. The code is an Atbash cipher (meaning A = Z, B = Y and so forth). You can find the full code in the book mentioned above, or on the Gravity Falls wikia under the List of Cryptograms category. I will publically reveal all codes in the epilogue of this story.**

 **Thank you for reading! Be sure to leave a review on the way out ;)**


	3. Chapter 2: Resurrection

**A/N: I apologize for the long wait in chapters. I can't promise it won't happen again. Real life has just left me drained of anything creative. Hopefully, you all will enjoy this chapter.**

 **Just as the last chapter was mostly about Mabel, this one is about Bill and what he's been up to the last few years. I will also add a flashback to every other chapter that will kind of rewrite the 3** **rd** **Weirdmageddon to fit with the storyline of this fic, since I had started this before the episode came out.**

…

 **Chapter 2: Resurrection**

 _Dipper could hear the buzz of the television from his and Mabel's bedroom. Shonda Ramirez had snuck into the Fearimid and discovered that all the captured citizens had been turned to stone and gathered together into a horrific throne for Bill. By the time the camera panned on Wendy's family, Dipper had left the room. Seeing the horrified faces of the other citizens - the people he had gotten to know and care about over the last three months - was just too much for him._

 _He could hear the refugees mourning downstairs. The reporter had been captured so her voice was no longer heard. The sound of laughing monsters was heard for a few minutes before someone finally destroyed the camera and left the TV buzzing with static._

 _Dipper sighed as he looked at his old corkboard of photos, sketches, and red string from when he had tried to figure out who the author of the journals was. Something that had happened only weeks ago felt like a lifetime in Weirdmageddon. He wasn't even sure if time was even moving anymore. Now the journals were gone and the author was trapped in Bill's palace. It was over._

" _Dipper?" He heard Mabel's voice but refused to look up. "Grunkle Stan made us some canned beans for us to eat." She set two bowls on each of the desk by his bed._

" _I'm not hungry," he said quietly._

" _Don't be like that," she worried. "You're gonna need your strength if we're going to take on Bill."_

" _With what Mabel?!" he finally turned to her, his voice going up a notch as his emotions he had been trying to bottle up began to spill out. "Bill destroyed my journals and he has Grunkle Ford! We're powerless against him."_

 _The female twin sighed, shaking her head. "How many times do I have to tell you that you don't_ need _those journals! You defeated Gideon without them after all."_

" _Gideon wasn't an all-powerful demon from another dimension! Those journals had all the answers to defeating him, and so did Ford!" He got up and stomped over to the corner of the room where they hid the oversized chess piece with a white sheet. He pulled the sheet up and sat down behind it, concealing himself. "Just leave me alone."_

 _Frustrated, Mabel got up and pulled the sheet away to reveal Dipper sitting on the ground with his back facing her and his knees pulled up to his chest. "What was the first thing that journal ever taught you, Dipper?" she asked seriously._

" _That your zombie boyfriend was actually a bunch of gnomes in disguise?" he retorted almost sarcastically._

" _Trust no one," she continued, wishing he wouldn't bring that incident up. "Grunkle Ford followed his own advice, and look where it got him! Not even his own_ brother _wants to help him! Every time you decide to go up against some monster, you think you can handle it by yourself. Doing things by yourself isn't always the best solution. You're stronger when you have Wendy with you. You're tougher with Soos there to back you up." She then stepped around him and knelt down so she could see his face. "You and I together are practically unstoppable. How can you act like this when not hours ago, we were riding atop a giant pig to escape from Bill's prison bubble?"_

 _He turned his head away as he said, "Escaping is easy. Fighting back is a lot tougher."_

 _She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to fight back alone."_

 _He looked back at her and saw her hopeful smile. He still felt defeated, but he couldn't help but smile back at her. "I guess I let the sight of what Bill had done to the townsfolk get to me."_

" _So did everyone else," it was her turn to look away towards the floorboards where the twins could still hear some of the refugees still crying. A thought struck her. "We practically have an army down there; you know?"_

 _Practically reading her mind, he agreed. "That's true. With McGucket's building skills, Wendy's knowledge of apocalypse survival, and Soos' love of anime and fighting shows, we could accomplish anything!"_

" _Don't forget Grenda's strength and Candy's psychotic tendencies!" Mabel added._

 _A plan started to formulate in his head. "We just need to rally them up. Find a way to sneak into the Fearimid, rescue the townsfolk and Grunkle Ford, and have him help us stop Bill once and for all."_

" _Excellent!" she exclaimed, jumping up, then hitting her head on the low wooden beam above. "Ow!" She started rubbing her tender spot. "The only question is how do we take down those other monsters?"_

 _He didn't waste a moment on that thought. He grabbed her hand and quickly led them out of the room._

 _They made it to the front lobby of the Mystery Shack where the entrance to Ford's lab was. Dipper punched in the code and the door swung open. Once the kids had made it down the stairs and into the main part of the lab. The broken pieces of the portal were still scattered about in the dangerous part of the room and many other boxes and crates were there as well. The twins began searching._

 _Mabel went to the far corner and started looking through boxes. Sadly, all she could find were spare part and miscellaneous bolts and screws. Dipper had started looking through his desk, looking for any sketches or blueprints he might've left behind for another weapon to build._

 _After looking through a third stack of papers, he started to move to the other side of the desk, but he was stopped by his foot jamming into something hard. He started hopping on the good foot, hissing until the ache went away. He looked down to see what he had hurt himself on._

 _Under Ford's desk was a large wooden crate. Curious, he bent down and started to pull it out. Mabel noticed him struggling and dashed over to help him. It looked brand new and had an inscription that read_ Experiment 618 2.0 _on top of the lid. They both worked together to get the lid off._

 _Inside the box was a stack of sketches spread out across the inside. Dipper began to gather them up and Mabel reached further inside. "Whoa, baby!" she exclaimed at the sight of the gun in her hands._

 _Dipper took notice immediately. It was the quantum destabilizer Ford had tried to use on Bill days ago. Hadn't it been destroyed with the church? He glanced at the drawings and figured out that this was an advanced prototype version of his gun, only it had a bigger scope. Dipper read the descriptions, finding that this gun could hold more energy. Judging by the layer of dust, Ford must've neglected finishing the gun in favor of the first one._

" _Do you think we could use this against Bill?" asked Mabel._

 _Dipper looked from his drawings, to the gun, then to his sister. He noted the determined look on her face; that hopeful optimism that never seemed to leave no matter how hopeless she felt. That one look alone was enough to give Dipper the courage he needed. He wasn't sure if finishing their uncle's project would work or not, but it was better than hiding in the Mystery Shack and waiting for the world to end._

 _His grip on the papers tightened as he stated, "Let's take down that isosceles monster!"_

…

Bill stood in the middle of his living room, his one eye tightly closed and his arms stretched out before him. He focused his energy as hard as he could muster, trying to create another portal out of it. He had waited years for his powers to return to its full strength. Once he was able to invade the dreams of one of his mortal enemies, he knew he was ready to strike back.

However, after Shooting Star had awakened from her nightmare, he had collapsed back into his prison, worn down and exhausted. Being stuck in the dreamscape, he was present in most anybody's dreams, especially if they were happening to be dreaming about the Mystery Shack. The problem was he was only a bystander. He could see the likes of Pine Tree, Sixer, and anyone else going about whatever was occupying their subconscious, but he couldn't interact with them. They didn't even seem to notice him when he tried to get their attention.

He spent the last six years relearning how to make his powers work once more. He did little things like trying to make the simplest of creatures appear in their dreams. He started with insects since they were the easiest to conjure up. It was three years into his re-training when a spider he created had landed on Question Mark's head, and he reacted to it by whacking himself in the head with a broom. Satisfied with his victory, he was able to conjure up other simple animals over the years and involve them in their dreams.

A year before, he had regained his ability to manipulate dreams. During one of Grunkle Stan's dreams, he had made a living maze and was able to shift and create new paths for the old man to wonder into. The triangle had been filled with excitement by this. But he knew he still had a ways to go before he could exact his real revenge.

While Bill had fun being able to re-control the dreams of the Pines family, he was still unable to make a full appearance in their dreams itself. Even though he could make a generic copy of himself or some type of allusion to them, he never did. He didn't want the Pines to see him coming until it was too late to stop him. He avoided doing anything drastic to Pine Tree and Sixer in their dreams, since they would be the most likely candidates to come up with a plan to stop him before he could act.

Now that six years had gone by, he decided to see how much better his powers had gotten. Even though Shooting Star was a big part in his ultimate defeat, she was the easiest target to intimidate, especially if it involved her brother. From years of observing her dreams, she knew enough of the young girl's insecurities to get under her skin, and that she had been having a hard time telling her brother how she was really feeling lately. For some reason, he didn't think the girl would tell anyone about her dream.

The dream was the first time in years he was able to take control of a dream from the inside and interact with others. While the idea of taking down the Pines with their own gun was satisfying, he had different plans in mind for them… much different.

A few days after the dream, his energy was back up to where he could use his powers again, but he was tired of dream manipulation. He felt now was the time to strike back at the Pines. However, he was going to need some assistance.

After what felt like an eternity, he felt a wave of energy shoot out of his hands. He opened his eye to see a blue swirling portal floating before him. Relieved that it worked, he quickly stepped through it, leaving the dreamscape for the first time in six years.

When in his most powerful stage, Bill had the ability to transport himself through any universe he wanted; except for the human world since it existed on a different plane than most universes. One of his favorite places was the Nightmare Realm since it was close to the dreamscape, but after Weirdmageddon, the dimension had eventually crumbled. With his power depleted, he had limited places he could transport himself to. The only place he knew he could go was the Center of Dimensions.

Just as the planets, stars, and the rest of the Milky Way galaxy revolved around the sun, all dimensions revolved around the COD. It was the easiest place for creatures of every dimension to meet up, but was only accessible to those who could dimension jump. It also served as a refuge for creatures coming from dimensions that were dying or gone for good. Bill was sure he would run into at least one of his old friends here.

On the other side of the portal, he found himself in an alleyway. It was dark outside and there was a lightbulb flickering on and off above him. He heard something moving in the dumpster to his left. Immediately, a purple cat with three eyeballs and a horned tail jumped out with a raccoon's tail hanging out of its mouth. It gave a low growl to Bill before running off. Slowly, Bill stepped out of the alleyway and into the bright big city that was the COD.

Tall, misshapen skyscrapers were everywhere. The streets were littered with multi-colored lights and all different creatures going about their daily lives. One of the things that amused Bill about the human realm was that all humans, no matter their skin color, were all similar in shape. It was the polar opposite of this realm. Every creature that came across him resembled a collection of young childrens'drawings, where no one was similar in anyway.

He continued to float down the street, keeping his eye out for any kind of establishment where his friends would be. He didn't search long when he bumped into someone.

"Watch it, triangle!" a gruff voice shouted at him.

Bill watched as a giant gray block with red eyes floated past him and continued.

"Well, so _rry_ , loser!" he shouted back annoyed. Once the creature was out of sight, Bill faced forward and whispered with a grin, "I love this place!"

He then looked above and noticed a dully-lit sign flashing on and off that read "Szyslak's Tavern". _Perfect_ , he thought as he took in the run-down building with swinging double doors.

Szyslak's was his old hangout from his younger days when he was learning to use his powers for the first time (which was close to a few millennia ago). He would often sneak to the tavern during after-hours and meet with his friends. If he was trying to find them, his best bet was here.

As he opened the tavern doors, he felt as if he traveled back in time. The place looked much older with its yellow stained walls and splinter-ridden floorboards, but the smell of smoke and blood still welcomed him with open arms. The building wasn't as crowded today as it was then with only fifteen or so creatures spread out across the room. The only sound that filled the place were muttered conversations and the dull humming of Gremoblin Chants coming from the half broken jukebox in the corner.

Bill paid no attention to the others as he strolled up to the bar. The bartender's back was turned to him, but the triangle demon still recognized him by the eight spider legs sticking out of his shirt. "Yo, Szyslak! I would like my usual, if you please!"

The bartender stiffened a moment, then turned to get a good look at the customer. He adjusted his glasses (with ten lenses to match it eyes) and smiled. "Well, well, well," Szyslak greeted in a weary voice. "If it isn't little Billy Cipher! How long has it been?"

"Since the third century," Bill replied casually. "I heard a rumor that you were dead, you old spider."

The spider hybrid laughed. "It takes a lot for a demon like me to get that ill. I actually heard the same of you."

"Is that so," Bill mused, his voice low. "What all have you heard?"

"From what I understand," Szyslak began as he prepared to make his drink, "your plans to take over the Earth realm didn't go as planned. Everyone assumed the humans destroyed you since you didn't make it back."

"Eh, it figures," Bill shrugged as he sipped his drink through his eyeball. "Any idea where I could find my group? See how many of it made it back or not?"

"Actually, Louie and Pyronica are sitting by the dart board if you want to say hi," the bartender gestured near the back entrance. "They've been missing you a great deal."

Bill turned to where he pointed. Sure enough, his fiery lady friend and the horrifying sweaty one-armed monstrosity were sitting in a booth chatting it up together. He thanked Szyslak, left a pile of small change on the counter, and made his way towards the duo.

"He did not!" Pyronica exclaimed with a giggle.

"It's true," Louie replied. "Hectorgon was the one who organized the whole thing! He nearly lost his mustache when the cake caught fire!"

The flame demon calmed her laughter, wiping a tear away from her. "Oh my goodness, I wish I could've been a fly on that wall." She paused a second, then recanted, "then again, Keyhole loves to eat flies."

"Don't we all know it!" another voice chimed in.

The couple turned to see a sight they never thought they would see again. Their jaws dropped.

"Bill?!" Pyronica exclaimed.

"In the flesh," the triangle gestured to himself. "Well, almost. This form still needs its full strength."

"b-but, how?!" Louie asked as he used his one arm to sit himself up so he could look at his old friend directly. "No one has heard from you in the last six years."

Bill came and sat next to Pyronica since Louie took up both seats on the other side of the booth. "I was blasted back into the Dreamscape. Those miserable humans designed a blaster that drained my new body of its power and left me stranded."

"Oh, how terrible," Pyronica shook her head.

"You're telling me," Bill took another sip of his drink. "What happened with you guys?"

Louie took a deep breath before he explained. "After you disappeared, the rest of us demons were sucked back into the void. After it closed, the Nightmare realm had begun to collapse on itself."

"Those who had enough strength to create portals were the only ones to escape," Pyronica continued, her voice solemn. "It was only a small few of us who survived."

Bill's eye drifted to the table, fixated on a spot of faded wood. "Who all came back?"

"Myself and Pyronica, Hectorgon, Keyhole, and Xanthar."

Bill cringed inwardly. That meant 8 Ball, Amorphous Shape, Kryptos, Paci-Fire, and Teeth were the ones that were left behind. His dear friends from long ago were now gone. If Bill was already angry, but after this new revelation, he was downright furious.

Pyronica noticed his form turn from yellow to orange, slowly making his way to red. She rubbed his arm, trying to soothe his rage. "I'm sorry you had to find out like this, Billy." She felt his arm flinch at the sound of her nickname for him. "I promise that everything is going to be okay."

The triangle took a deep breath, his normal color returning. "You're right," he said lowly. "Everything will be alright… Once I make the Pines family pay for what they did!"

"That's not what I – "

"We will round up the others," he instructed, not hearing Pyronica at all. "It will most likely take me a week to get my full strength back. Until then, we can formulate a revenge plan, find a creature who can create a spell to get to the Earth realm, and reclaim our rightful place as rulers of that dimension!"

Pyronica and Louie exchanged another quick look. It was her turn to start with the bad news. "Bill, we would love to help you and all, but Louie and I are out of the chaos business."

He looked at her confused. "What do you mean?"

"The lot of us were distraught after losing our friends," she continued. "We realized that even if we could live for thousands of millennia, we're not as immortal as we thought."

"We wanted to do something meaningful with our lives," the other man added and he gently grabbed Pyronica's hand in his.

Finally, Bill looked down at their joined hands and noticed a big red jewel sitting atop the she-demon's left finger. His eye widened a bit. "You two got married?!"

The couple grinned sheepishly, and Pyronica's face turned a deeper shade of red if even possible.

Bill gave Louie a sly look. "So, by doing something meaningful, you just meant each other," he laughed a little, then quickly stopped. "How does that even work anyway?"

"Bill!" Pyronica scolded.

"It's a legitimate question!" Bill argued. "You and I went out for a while, and I could at least shapeshift into whatever form you so desired. Last I checked, Louie didn't have any kind of powers like that."

"Rub it in, why don't ya," Louie said under his breath.

"It still doesn't explain why you guys can't help me with my plan," he changed the subject. "I thought we were friends for life."

"We are," Pyronica answered. "We would be willing to do anything for you, but world domination isn't in our plans anymore."

Once again, Bill felt defeated. He sat back down and took a slow sip of his drink. The other two remained silent, not knowing what to say to cheer their friend up. He was starting to think maybe he should give up. Even if he could get the others to agree, he still didn't have a solid plan in his head just yet. Heck, he didn't even have a way to get to the Earth realm without mutilating himself from the inside out.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

The three heads shot up at the sound of a loud scream. They turned towards the entrance to see a giant blue tentacle monster hovering over a small cowering form. Upon closer inspection, Bill could see that the small form was a child.

A male _human_ child, to be exact.

Bill's curiosity was caught instantly. How was a human child in this realm? Maybe it was a shapeshifter disguised as a kid? Nah, no one would be foolish enough to walk around the COD disguised as a human. They were the most despised creatures in all of the dimensions.

He noted everyone else aside from him and the Newlyweds were the only ones paying attention to the situation. Normally he would ignore something like this and let the tentacle monster have his snack for the day, but there was something gnawing at the back of his mind, telling him to help the kid out. He tried to refuse it, but it wouldn't let up. Finally, relenting, he got up and floated towards the scene.

"Hold it there, buster!" he called out.

The tentacle monster turned its attention away from the human boy and looked at Bill. Or, at least, he thought it was looking at him. The creature was literally nothing but a pile of tentacles. No face, torso, nothing! It was the epitome of anime nightmares. "Grrrrrggglll grrrrr!" it exclaimed, which Bill was able to translate as, 'How did you know my name?'

Bill could only shrug. "Lucky guess." He floated further until he was between it and the kid. "Listen, this kid right here is mine."

The monster tilted to the side, assuming confused.

"Not _literally_ mine," he corrected, thinking of a very quick excuse. "He's my nephew visiting from the 88th dimension. You know how obsessed those creatures are with humans. It's practically disgusting."

The monster gurgled an agreement. He then gurgled some more nonsense, this time sound frustrated.

"I'm sorry for letting him wander off," he responded. "It'll never happen again."

At that, the monster gurgled low and started to float away, presumably mad it didn't get to snack.

Once he was gone, Bill finally turned to face the young boy sitting behind him. He had fair skin with a mess of dark blonde hair hanging a little over his glasses. His blue jeans were ripped at the knee and he wore a red shirt with a light blue dinosaur on the front. He looked visibly frightened.

Putting on a friendly act, Bill held out his hand towards him. "Don't ya worry, kiddo," he said jovially. "You uncle Billy's got your back."

The boy stared at his hand a moment, very confused. He wordlessly took it as the triangle helped him to his feet. Bill led him back to his table where his friends sat. "Syzslak! A glass of milk for little Dinosaur over here!"

"Cow's milk, goat's milk, or gnome's milk?"

Bill looked to the boy for a response.

"C-cow," the boy stammered, trying to not look at the giant spider sitting behind the bar.

Bill had the boy sit next to Pyronica and Louie sat up so Bill could sit next to him.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" Pyronica asked as she tried to soother him as she did with Bill before. The boy flinched at her touch, but didn't leave his seat.

"I'm f-fine, thank you," he said politely.

"Kid, you shouldn't be running around places like this, especially after dark," Louie warned. "Where are your parents?"

The boy looked down as Syzslak approached with a glass of milk. He sat it in front of the boy who quietly gave his thanks then walked off. "I don't know," he finally answered.

"Maybe we could help you find them," Pyronica said reassuringly. "Do you remember when you last saw them?"

The boy inspected his milk before deciding it was safe to take a sip before answering them. "My dad and I got into a big fight, then I ran away from home. I pressed a button, and the next thing I knew, I was standing outside of this building."

Bill arched his eyebrow. "What do you mean you pressed a button?"

The boy stared at him a moment, almost as if deciding whether or not he should trust the giant talking triangle in front of him. He slowly took his left arm – which he had been hiding under the table – and laid it flat for everyone to see. Circling the boy's wrist was an odd looking watch.

Bill studied it for a moment. The strap of the watch was brown with a silver square in the center. There was a tiny black screen with two dials on each end and two buttons in the middle. On the black screen was a green was a green hourglass symbol moving in slow circles. He immediately recognized it as the logo for the Time Anomaly Removal Crew.

"My dad didn't want me to have this watch," the boy continued. "That's what we were arguing about before I got here."

Bill nodded slightly, still staring at the watch in wonder. Obviously, this kid was from a distant future if he was able to get his hands on something like this. But he knew from invading Blendin Blandin's mind that time watches could only take you through time in the Earth dimension. He shouldn't have been able to transport to this realm with it.

"May I?" Bill asked, his hand hovering over the watch.

Oddly enough, the boy didn't seem to hesitate in taking off his watch and handing it to him. Bill began turning it this way and that. It looked similar to Blendin's, but he remembered his watch had one dial and one button where this one had two. Carefully, he started fiddling with one of the dials.

"Bill Cipher, you better be careful," Pyronica warned, noticing how uneasy the boy next to her was looking.

Bill shushed her. After a moment, he was satisfied with what he found. "I gotta hand it to the little Dinosaur. You got yourself a pretty fine watch."

"It looks like any other time watch to me," Louie commented.

"Actually, it's more advance than that," the demon said almost evilly. "This watch can not only transport you through time, it can also jump you to any dimension."

Both demons looked at him with shocked expressions. "You're kidding me," Pyronica answered. She then thought a moment. "It would explain how a human got here."

 _And how I'm going to get to Earth_ , Bill thought evilly.

"Little Dinosaur, how about you and I make a wager?" Bill asked, friendly voice still there.

The demon couple glared at him warningly. They already knew what Bill was thinking, but he ignored them.

"What kind of deal?" the kid asked unsure.

"How's about you let me borrow your watch for a bit," he suggested, "in exchange for saving your life earlier."

The boy slowly reached and put his hand on the watch that was now sitting on the table. "I don't think that would be a good idea…"

Bill quickly put his hand over his. "I could always take it back and feed you to Syzslak's pet Jabberwocky."

The boy knew he was threatening him, but he just cocked his head at him. "The creature from _Alice in Wonderland_?"

"Yeah," he narrowed his eye menacingly. "He's out back waiting to be fed…"

"Actually, I had Jabbers put down years ago," Syzslak said as he overheard them making his rounds. "Poor old girl was getting on in age."

Bill rolled his eye as the bartender left their table. He noticed the boy sucking his lips between his teeth, probably trying not laugh at his failures.

"Okay then," he began deciding to go in a different direction. "If you let me use the watch for a little while, I will give you whatever you want."

Again, the boy was skeptical. " _Anything_ I want?"

"Yes," the demon was almost annoyed. "A bag of candy, a puppy, your school to spontaneously combust the same day as your math test, you name it and it's yours!"

He held his hand out this time, blue flame engulfing it from fingertip to wrist.

The boy thought it over a moment before he finally shook the demon's hand. After that, the boy handed the watch over to him.

Bill stared down at the time watch in his hands, hope filling him once more. He was finally going to have his sweet revenge.

Meanwhile, Pyronica and Louie looked on with worried expressions. They had a feeling this wasn't going to end well….

(DZMWVIMT SFNZM XSROWIVM DROO YV UVW GL GSV QZYYVIDLXP!)

….

 **The real name for Louie in the Weirdmageddon credits was "The Horrifying Sweaty One-Armed Monstrosity". Obviously, typing that up every chapter was going to be a pain, so I named him after his voice actor Louis CK. Also, Szyslak is the last name of Moe from** _ **The Simpsons**_ **.**

 **Thanks again for the reviews/follows! Like last time, I added another code to the end of this chapter. Still the same Atbash cipher as the last chapter.**


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